Boston Celtics point guard Avery Bradley (0) defends against Memphis Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley (11) during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game this past season.
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON – Brad Stevens still won’t commit to a Rajon Rondo replacement if, as expected, the star point guard misses the beginning of the coming season. But Stevens has been asked twice this week about who might take the bulk of Rondo’s minutes, and each time he’s singled out Avery Bradley.

“We have a bunch of guards that have been in the building, that have been working hard. You (reporters) know them as well as I do, who’s in the running for it. But I think obviously, it all depends on how you decide to play and how people best fit,” Stevens said Thursday at the TD Garden, where he joined a panel with seven Massachusetts Division I coaches for a fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society's Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. “I’m not dead set (that) a point guard has to be what people would consider to be a prototypical point guard. It can be a number of different guys that fit that group well.

“But I don’t think there’s any doubt that Avery has elite ability in a lot of ways as a point guard. And when I say that, he’s an elite defender at the point guard position, he’s an elite athlete at the point guard position. And I think he’s a guy that has gotten better, I think he’s a guy that’s gotten more confidence, and I think he’s excited about the challenge if Rondo is out.”

After emerging as a solid offensive option during his second season, Bradley regressed last year while, in Rondo’s absence, shouldering a lot of point guard responsibilities. The consensus has been that he’s better off the ball and has struggled to handle ball-handling responsibilities, but Stevens doesn’t necessarily view things that way.

“People look at it different ways,” he said. “I can understand where people would say he struggled because of the numbers, but you can’t measure the numbers at the other end of the floor quite as well. And he can impact a game like very, very few people in the NBA, so I think struggle is really a subjective term.

“As I’ve watched it, I didn’t think the struggles were as bad as they were made out to be. And the other thing is, he did that mid-stream. He had to make that adjustment within a system already created, and maybe we do things that fit him a little bit better early, that you can tweak when Rondo comes back. Because Bradley’s still going to play. He’s still going to play a lot, he’s going to play off the ball and with the ball when he comes back. Our best-case scenario is he becomes the best point guard he can possibly be, because even when Rajon’s back, he’s not going to play 48 minutes.”

Bradley’s mother passed away two weeks ago at age 46, and his first child – a son named Avery Bradley III – was born this week.

“Avery’s obviously had as emotional a last few weeks as you can have,” said Stevens. “I saw him (Wednesday), he’s a young guy going through a lot of hard stuff right now. I’m a lot less worried about how he plays, anda lot more concerned that he feels good about being around his teammates and being around us, and feels like he can get a sense of normalcy and rhythm just back in with life. Because going through what he went through with his mom is awfully challenging."